


Homeward, One Star Awake

by saisei



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Halloween 2018, ghost story
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-29
Updated: 2018-10-31
Packaged: 2019-08-09 13:15:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 4
Words: 2,942
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16450655
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/saisei/pseuds/saisei
Summary: Only Ignis and Gladio make it out of Zegnautus Keep. Though Ignis believes otherwise...





	1. Gralea

Gladio's not holding it together real well as they stumble out of Gralea. Noct is gone – Gladio feels sick when he thinks about how furiously he'd wanted Noct to step up and stop rejecting his destiny. Well, his destiny has him now, and Noct's Shield is stuck here and useless.

He does keep Iggy safe, carving their way out through daemons and MTs. It's the least he can do. They finally find shelter in a tiny bunker just on the other side of the mountains. Four walls and a door that bars, a bare cot, and a radio setup. Gladio gets a fire going so they don't die; Ignis clears a spot on the desk and makes... well, Gladio'd call it a snack, not a meal: toast cut into triangles and mugs of cocoa. Three of them.

"Iggy," he says, trying to sound patient and understanding, and not let his terror bleed into impatience. "Iggy. Prompto's – "

"Right here," and Ignis sounds so fucking serene Gladio could cry. "Drink while it's warm."

Thing is, Ignis didn't have to see what was left of Prompto in that cell back in Zegnautus. Gladio will never forget: not the dark blood, or the way his insides had been torn and violated, or how he'd died in such agony his face was still twisted long after his body grew cold.

He doesn't blame Iggy for going off the rails. They all had. But this...

"I'm glad," Ignis says, not replying to Gladio, and tries to put on a brave smile. Gladio could swear there's not as much cocoa in the third mug as there used to be, and an icy chill goes down his spine. Ignis slides his fingers forward until he finds the plate with toast, and nudges it carefully but surely toward that aching space where no one stands. "Eat something. Perhaps you'll feel better."


	2. World Of Ruin

"So what's Prompto up to these days?" Gladio asks. Not that he believes, but sometimes he just needs to check if Iggy is still nuts.

"Same old," Ignis says, with a knowing smile. And then, with a roll of his visible eye as if he'd been whined at, he digs in a pocket and produces a familiar camera. "He's been taking quite a few pictures during our travels. Would you care to see?"

"Why the hell not?" Gladio says. He accepts the camera, and has to admit that for a crazy person who's unable to see his own hand in front of his face, Ignis is pretty damn good at photography these days. It gives him the shivers, goosebumps raising every fine hair along his arms and at the back of his neck.

The next time he runs into Ignis (he feels like a heel for it, but he really tries very hard, sometimes, to _not_ run into Ignis), he gives in to the morbid urge and asks again. Ignis is pleased to indulge him. The darkened world looms up eerily from each snapshot, but Ignis has figured out a way to use the camera's settings to make the most of whatever ambient light there is. Most of the pictures are of wildlife and panoramic vistas. Ignis, he thinks with anger-tinged irritation, gets around.

Asking to see the pictures becomes a bad habit that he can't break, so he's relieved when six, or maybe seven, years after Noct went into the crystal, Ignis finally gives up photography.

"Thank fuck," Gladio says. He feels rotten as soon as the words leave his mouth, glancing at the empty space by Ignis' side automatically. Then he's pissed off at himself for being both superstitious and indulgent. "You sell the camera?" he adds, trying to come across a bit apologetic but mostly like he doesn't care.

"Lost it, I'm afraid," Ignis says. He doesn't sound upset.

"Huh." Gladio eyes Ignis. He seems a lot calmer: not like he's happy, exactly, but he's got back his pre-injury confidence and then some. _Please,_ Gladio thinks, hoping as hard as he can. He hates to admit it, but he's lonely. "Bet Prompto hated that."

Ignis smiles to himself. "He was indeed quite put out. I'm still making it up to him."

Nope. Iggy is still checked in at the Hotel Delusion. Well. They'll finish this hunt, and maybe meet up a year or two from now. Maybe... things will be better then. Or at least less painful.


	3. Hammerhead

Gladio wasn't purposeless during the sunless years, but Noct's return gives him a strength he hadn't even realized was missing, setting a fire in his heart. He's prepared, and knowing the time is _now_ makes him walk taller as he goes to greet his king.

Alighting from Talcott's truck, Noct smiles, weary and wry and undeniably royal, if long-haired and unkempt; Ignis and Gladio, impeccable in their uniforms, bow low.

"Hey," Noct says. Gladio can hear him smiling, the weight of a myriad emotions coloring the greeting. Love and regret most of all, and it makes his eyes sting.

"That all you have to say for yourself?" he counters, looking down at Noct – he can't look away, can't imagine even wanting to try. "After all these years."

"Not on purpose." Noct reaches out and clasps Gladio by the shoulders for a brief, warm moment. "I never wanted..." He looked past Gladio to where Ignis stood keeping a Prompto-sized nothingness by his side. "Talcott said you guys... went your separate ways."

That makes Ignis chuckle, and when he speaks his voice has a fondness and gentleness to it that Gladio hasn't heard in years: "Some of us further than others."

Gladio laughs, too, though bitterly, and Noct gives him a peculiar look. "What Iggy means," he explains, still angry after all these years, "is he's been seeing Prompto's ghost ever since Ardyn killed him in Zegnatus."

Noct pauses, taking that in, and then cocks his head at the open diner door, where Talcott's hovering, not wanting to intrude. "I'm sorry I couldn't be here," he says as they start walking.

"So what've you been up to?" Gladio asks. "We going to end the darkness?"

Noct's eyes flash, lit by crystal-light, and his smile is sharp. "Oh, yeah."

They spend the last night before the battle camping, for old times' sake. Noct walks to the lookout point while Gladio's setting up, and Ignis follows him. They don't talk long, but when they come back Noct's face is streaked with tears and Ignis is silent, shoulders stiff as he goes to make dinner. Gladio wonders if they'd been talking about Prompto – whether Noct also believes, or if he'd – more likely – tried to get Ignis to stop kidding himself.

Noct nods sideways at Gladio after a moment, and they go off to have their own talk. Gladio can barely make out the city's scars in the darkness, but it's still wrenching. Noct puts his hand on Gladio's shoulder and talks, tells him everything he learned from the gods. He talks about how it feels to have as much power at his fingertips as he does; how much the armiger and his ancestry weigh on him. They go over the strategy for the next day's battle, Noct insisting a time will come when they'll have to go their separate ways.

Gladio shakes that off; it's unthinkable. "Iggy and I've got your back," he says, trying not to sound too harsh. "We always will. Live with it."

Noct just sighs.

Over dinner, Noct looks from Gladio, to Ignis, to Prompto's empty chair, and says with pensive heartbreaking sincerity, "You guys... were the best. The best friends I could ever have had. I'm... ready for what's coming." His eyes on Gladio are so gentle that Gladio finally does have to wipe away tears. "I hate to leave you alone, though."

"Don't worry about us," Ignis says, leaning forward, focusing on Noct across the fire, with that squint he gets when he's trying to force himself to see through the blindness. "It is... so good, to finally hear you speak of what's in your heart."

Gladio nods. "What he said. You're our king. We would follow you anywhere. And," he looks at Iggy, who's barely holding it together, "we love you. Never been a minute when we didn't."

Noct swallows hard. "Yeah. That." His gaze travels around the chairs again. "I do, too. So much."

"We know," Ignis says. Gladio's not surprised that he can't keep his voice from breaking, and after a moment, he says, "I'm sorry," unable to hold his tears back anymore; and then, as he stumbles to his feet, "Prompto and I will retiring for the night, tomorrow promises to be quite the day. Until morning."

"Night, Iggy, Prompto," Gladio says, and then raises an eyebrow at Noct, daring him to play along.

Which of course he does. "Night, guys." Noct raises a hand like he wants to wave but has no idea where to aim. Gladio huffs. He knows that frustration, he's lived with it – and Prompto's hallucinatory presence – for a decade.

Noct stares into the fire for a long time, and then without looking up asks Gladio to tell him about the decade of darkness. Gladio breathes out slowly, hoping his relief isn't visible; he doesn't want to explain the whole thing about Iggy, not on this night. Instead he tells Noct about their friends, the living and the dead, and about all the struggles and victories and setbacks. Noct nods off while he's talking, and Gladio figures he's become like one of his dad's friends, boring people with tales of the old days. He rouses Noct enough to half-carry him to the tent, and stretches him out between him and Ignis. They can watch over him for now, he thinks; for as long as they can.


	4. Insomnia

The drive into the city the next day is silent, as is most of the walk from the ruined highway to the Citadel. Noct's concentration is formidable, even as they encounter roving bands of daemons; in battle they work together as if they'd never been parted. Noct wields the royal arms and the ring as if he'd never resisted his birthright, and calls on the wrath of the gods themselves to clear their path.

Ignis strides forward on Noct's right side, drawn up to his full height with overflowing pride in his king. Gladio takes the left, his proper place as Shield. He taps into the artesian fury of his murdered city and its people, lets it surge up into him and forges it into adamant purpose and resolve. 

He's never felt as fully alive as he does when they reach the great staircase leading up to the Citadel. He knows Noct's the same, even as he pauses outside the throne room and asks Gladio if he's got one of Prompto's pictures, "to take with me."

Gladio wants to bark at him to shut up, not say that or even think it, but instead he just digs out his wallet and hands over the snapshot of the four of them posing with the Regalia that he's been carrying around long enough that it's cracked and dog-eared.

"Thanks," Noct says, holding it for a moment like a treasure, before sliding it into his jacket over his heart. Ignis looks down to the side, murmuring something reassuring that Gladio doesn't catch; not meant for his ears, anyway. "I'm ready now."

Like anyone could be ready for Ardyn.

Gladio is dragged up out of magic-induced unconsciousness by Ignis alternately yelling at him and shaking him, and is halfway down the stairs when he thinks to ask where they are going, and why, and how.

Ignis refuses to slow his pace to indulge Gladio's headache. "The battle of kings wages outside," he bites out, "watched over by the Lucii, and yet the Shield of the King dawdles on the stairs." His voice sours. "The elevators are experiencing an inconvenient outage. Prompto tells me the power to the entire building has been cut."

"That why it's so dark, huh," Gladio says.

Ignis makes a noise that's practically a growl of sheer annoyed frustration, and demands that he move _faster_.

For all that they hurry, by the time they reach the ground Ardyn is dead – physically – and Noct has to follow him to the spiritual realm to release his soul and free the world from darkness.

"Prompto," Noct says, turning back as he mounts the stairs. "Gladio. Ignis. I leave the rest to you."

"Godspeed," Ignis says. "And take care."

Gladio's wordless, but he bows, as crisply as he can in the pouring rain, and when he straightens Noct is already receding, ascending, gone. Gladio yearns to go with him, to be with him to the very end, but when he takes a step forward Ignis shakes his head, very slightly, even as he arms himself.

"Be his Shield," Ignis murmurs, voice roughened with grief. If Prompto was really here, Gladio thinks, he'd be just as heartbroken. "You too have a destiny; fulfill it. He'll be the most vulnerable to the darkness now, and it must not be allowed to stop him."

"Like anything could get by me," Gladio says. He breathes deep, as the daemons well up and the battle to protect the Citadel begins. The border between sorrow and rage has always been thin, and the fury that he is capable of unleashing now is hindered by no compassion, no mercy, no limits.

He has no gods to call on; he has no need of them. The daemons are a blight on Eos, and just as Noct exists to bring back the light, the purpose Gladio was forged for is to make the world right again. He feels as if all the Shields of the past have his back, lending him strength. He will not yield even one step of the staircase, despite the onslaught of red giants, reapers, braindrainers, bombs, naga, gargantua...

"Gladio!"

Right on the heels of Ignis' warning, Gladio is flung backwards with violent force, his thoughts wiped away in a blinding white light and the strength of his rage sucked away, leaving him a hollow shell.

"Up, man," Ignis demands, thrusting his hand out for Gladio to grab hold of. When he does so – not sure how, except out of fear of refusing Ignis' orders – Ignis hauls him to his feet mercilessly. "You are the _King's Shield_. This is your duty – this is why we kept you alive all these years. Don't you dare fail us now."

"Like I would," Gladio snarls back at him, anger at Iggy refocusing him as he rejoins the fray.

"You okay?" Prompto calls from where he's blasting a trio of yojimbo to bits.

Ignis waves a hand dismissively. "He lost his head for a moment. Nothing to worry about."

When this is all over, Gladio is going to have strong words with Ignis, he decides. But for the time being, he throws himself into the battle and doesn't let himself think. His entire existence is to stand between the king and his enemies; he doesn't need or want anything more than total victory. And so when the daemons stop rising and the air takes on a hazy gray glow, he's flooded with a sudden intense surge of joy.

He completed his life's purpose. He stood tall before the darkness and shielded his king. His golden reward sets the far horizon on fire as it rises, first light making the clouds glow like crystals.

"Sun's rising," Gladio calls to Iggy. He's exhausted, right down to the marrow of his bones, and has no idea where Ignis got the strength to match him in mercilessness, plowing through daemons like an exquisite killing machine.

Ignis looks up. "So it is." He glances over at Prompto, while swiping blood and clinging ooze from his uniform. "We should go to Noct."

"I don't want to," Gladio blurts out, remembering suddenly the price of the dawn. "Fuck. Fuck all of this. He's _dead_."

"Aren't we all," Ignis says philosophically, with a wry amused smile. "But he's still our King, and he'll be expecting his Crownsguard. Disheveled as we may be."

Prompto reaches up and pats Gladio on the shoulder, and then gives him an awkward half-hug. "Guess we're a matching set now. You think Noct figured out how to turn the elevators on when he went back up?"

"Doubtful," Gladio says, dropping his arm over Prompto's wiry shoulders and feeling a childlike urge to cling and never let go of him again. "Stairs are good exercise."

"After _exorcising_ the entire city, I feel I've done quite enough for today," Ignis says, but his wide grin belies the sentiment. He looks young and mischievous, and Gladio grabs him with his other arm and pulls him in, ignoring Ignis' injunction to not muss his uniform or his hair. They're his family; he's missed them; with them now, he's complete.

"I think I'm ready," Gladio says. He's done his duty; in the end, he was worthy. He watches the sun dance across the world once more, brightening his friends' familiar faces, and it feels as if the light reaches right through him to fill up his heart. "Let's go home."

When Gladio enters the throne room, at his one side Ignis walks tall; on the other, Prompto. Looking up, he sees Noct sitting on his throne, Lunafreya at his side, and the hall around them brilliant, glory restored and festooned with flowers.

Ignis stops and snaps to attention, hand over his heart. Executing a perfect bow, which Gladio and Prompto echo, he greets Noct:

"Your Majesty."

And when they rise, Noct is smiling down on all of them.

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Halloween, everyone!


End file.
